


opera house

by romanvacation



Category: Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, One-sided pining, a flustered todd, an oblivious neil, and nobody dies yay, only brief mentions of mr. perry i promise, opera au i guess, todd is like what are these feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:34:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23939995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romanvacation/pseuds/romanvacation
Summary: todd simply shook his head, suddenly mute as he tried to give a small, closed-lipped smile. he moved towards the vanity, setting his bag down with the acute awareness that neil was watching his every move, almost curiously, as though this was the first time in the history of time that anybody had ever removed contents from a bag, like it was the most fascinating thing he had ever witnessed.
Relationships: Todd Anderson/Neil Perry
Comments: 6
Kudos: 53





	opera house

**Author's Note:**

> song inspiration is “opera house” by cigarettes after sex. hope you enjoy.  
> ft. lowercase per usual.

the cold air swept in as the back entrance to the theater swung open, much to the alarm of passing stagehands, who each gave a look of disapproval that was not lost as he shut the door behind him, a few flurries of snow managing to escape past him and into the slicked floor of backstage.

the opera house was alive tonight. not that it ever wasn’t, because the history lingered here like a ghost. the golden, extravagant details around the stage, the sweeping red velvet curtains, the paintings on the ceiling of angels and men and women. there was nothing about the place that could be dead, even on the rare occasion when there were no shows.

but there was one now, and todd was charged with the daunting task of doing the makeup for most of the performers, even the leads, which was the most terrifying part of the task. they had to look immaculate, and there was a delicate balance between the heaviness of stage makeup and the beauty that it was meant to show.

he was aware of the fact that it was unusual for a boy to be doing stage makeup, because the majority of men were not well-versed in the purpose of eyeliner versus mascara, and he supposed that there would have been a time long passed where he wouldn’t be hired, but that was fortunately not now, and the manager of the opera house had taken him in.

he was determined, then, to not fail, and he was sure that he was capable of doing so. that did not, however, ease his nerves about exactly how many people he would have to meet and sit in close proximity to.

it was a rehearsal night tonight, one of the first that the actors and actresses would be doing in costume, and so todd was armed with a bag at his side as he made his way from backstage to the dressing rooms, where there were even more people, all bustling about in an attempt to get ready before it was time to go on.

minor actors were donned in wig caps and no wigs, standing bent over at mirrors with thick rims of eyeliner around their eyes, charged with doing their own makeup. they looked over at him as he entered before losing interest a moment later, leaning to grab more dark powder to swipe under their cheekbones and across their temples.

he felt his throat tighten slightly, like someone had taken a wig cap and shoved it down his throat, and he hesitated for a moment at the entrance of the dressing room, looking utterly incompetent before a stage manager took him by the arm and lead him down the room to a series of doors, seemingly impatient with him, and he didn’t blame her.

“here,” she said, rapping on one of the doors, and todd could hear someone’s response from inside, a faint “come in” as the stage manager pushed open the door with a small click and pulled todd forward into the room. “start here,” she said, giving a curt nod as she closed the door behind her, and todd was forced to turn around and face his first job of the night.

the room was comfortably sized, modestly furnished for an actor of status in the show but not necessarily anywhere else: a small sofa and a chair in the corner atop a bland carpet, a few paintings that you might see in a public restroom, and a large dressing mirror, lit up across a barren vanity. there, perched with a kind of relaxed demeanor was a man. or a boy, he supposed, because todd thought they must be the same age.

“hey, nice to meet you,” the actor greeted first, giving him a wide grin. “i’m neil. there’s an extra stool if you want to sit,” he offered, nodding his head in the direction of the opposite end of the room.

todd simply shook his head, suddenly mute as he tried to give a small, closed-lipped smile. he moved towards the vanity, setting his bag down with the acute awareness that neil was watching his every move, almost curiously, as though this was the first time in the history of time that anybody had ever removed contents from a bag, like it was the most fascinating thing he had ever witnessed.

todd tried to ignore this fact, because it would only serve to make him more nervous than he already was. he neatly arranged all his items across the counter before he turned around again to face neil, who didn’t look away and pretend he hadn’t been watching. instead, his interest sort of visually turned from the makeup to todd himself, something that made him very, very nervous. more so than he believed himself to be capable of.

todd looked away so quickly that he thought his eyeballs might fly out of his skull. he swallowed again, like another wig cap was being pushed down his throat, and reached for a bottle and a sponge just as neil began speaking again.

“you didn’t tell me your name,” he said, and nothing about it was pressuring or abrasive at all. it was simply stated as though they were two people who sat next to each other and class and were on the brink of friendship, not at all as though todd was just someone hired to paint neil’s face for the next few weeks or months, depending on how the show went.

“todd. todd anderson,” he answered, tone quiet and small against how neil sounded. as though everything he was saying was a performance, although todd was sure that he wasn’t aware of the fact. there was merely a hidden kind of confidence behind it, almost alluring as though he wanted to pull you into it too, for you to be in it with him, together.

“todd,” neil repeated, a smile across his lips again. he nodded then with such an air that todd knew he wasn’t about to forget it.

he merely hummed in response simply to fill the air, moving to dab foundation across neil’s face, more so than he would have liked to, because there really wasn’t much to change. nothing, in fact, now that he thought about it.

“you do this often?” neil asked as todd finished up and turned around again to grab what he needed next. todd glanced back at him, almost in surprise, because he hadn’t really had someone seem this interested in talking to him before. he wasn’t quite sure how he should be feeling.

“not as much as i’d like to,” he responded, the corners of his mouth pulling into a small smile as he gestured for neil to tilt his head a little so that todd could draw the lines of contour to be blended. he found himself placing a hand, without thinking, on the back of neil’s neck, almost steadying him as he bent to make sure everything was as it should be. once he was satisfied, he set that down to grab a brush, and he caught sight of a movement in the mirror, and his gaze caught neil’s in the reflection as neil let out a bright kind of laugh.

“oh, i look crazy,” he said, turning his head left and right to look at the harshness of the unblended lines. todd let out a small, quiet laugh, shaking his head.

“you won’t look crazy when i’m finished,” he assured him quickly, a smile still on his lips as he moved to brush the color out into his skin.

it was quiet for a while after that, but it wasn’t the awkward sort of silence that todd feared, the kind that made him want to dig a hole right into the floor and disappear in it.

“how long have you been doing this?” neil asked suddenly as todd was attempting to get a little bit of color onto his lips. needless to say, he was grateful for the distraction.

“uh, not too long,” he answered, tone noticeably quieter than it had been before, now nervous, for whatever reason, about being so close to him and his lips. “just since i moved away from home. it’s a lot easier to, uh, do this sort of thing.”

he didn’t particularly feel like clarifying what he meant, but neil seemed to understand. todd could tell by the movement of his brow and the twitch at the corner of his lips.

“how long have you been acting? and singing,” he added, a little desperate to put something else out into the air to overpower what he’d said before. he hadn’t exactly expected to get so close to something deep while doing makeup.

there was something that seemed to light up in neil’s eyes at the question, like something about it reached down into his soul and turned it inside out.

“since i was six,” he answered. “my father thought it was a nice idea. something refined, i guess. i don’t think he expected me to like it this much.”

he gave a small chuckle to punctuate the end of that statement, though todd could tell that there was something delicate there, something he didn’t care to pry into, not when he was starting to feel more comfortable around neil.

“i’ve always liked the acting more than the singing, anyway,” neil added, closing his eyes as todd carefully moved to draw a thin line of brown eyeliner across his lid.

todd nodded as a reflex, though once he realized that neil couldn’t exactly see him, he hummed in reply instead, softly, because he understood the implication of what the actor was saying a little too well.

he wasn’t going to vocalize this, though, and instead decided to venture away from the obvious question of why he was still doing it if he didn’t enjoy the actual opera part of the opera.

“ever thought about just theater?” he asked lightly as he stepped back, capping the pencil as neil’s eyes fluttered open, all too much like something out of a fairytale, lashes dark against his skin and eyes bright with something todd couldn’t place and didn’t care to try to. inexplicably, something became caught in his throat.

“yeah, maybe,” neil replied, a small smile on his lips, as there was nothing better in the world that he could be talking about. “once i go to college, i think i’ll try.”

again, todd found himself wanting to ask a question he knew he shouldn’t. about why neil wasn’t (presumably) majoring in theater, but from the way he had spoken about his father, it was clear that neil wasn’t in the position to make decisions of that magnitude.

instead, unable to find his words, which wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling to him, he simply gave neil a small, faint kind of smile, like they were both in on a secret or a private joke, and to his surprise, after a moment, neil smiled back. brightly.

todd deemed his work finished and packed up his things to move on to the next actor the stage manager wanted him to work on. he gathered up his bag and spared a few glances towards neil, who gave a once-over in the mirror before giving todd the brightest, biggest grin he had ever had the pleasure of seeing in his entire life.

“thanks,” neil said, giving him an appreciative nod, and todd, too starstruck to say anything, smiled back at him and shut the door as he stepped out.

later, once todd had been passed from mirror to mirror, actor to actor, none the same as neil, he sat out in the far rows of the opera house seats, leaned back on a chair of red velvet, his hands clasped in his lap as he watched neil perry, quite possibly the brightest star he had ever seen, shine so blindingly that todd was afraid he would get hurt.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you. tumblr: pride-and-petulance. twitter: elvisstressley.


End file.
